Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene has returned to recounting his side’s recent Indian Premier League (IPL) run, insisting that a five-year title drought has not taken much away from what remains one of the competition’s most successful franchises.
Mumbai Indians are among the most decorated sides in IPL history, having won five titles. Alongside Chennai Super Kings, they hold the joint record for the number of championships. However, since their last triumph in 2020Mumbai have struggled to repeat this feat and have failed to win the tournament in the last five seasons. They only made the playoffs twice in that period and finished bottom of the points table twice, in 2022 and 2024.
However, pointing to the bigger picture, Jayawardene noted that the IPL has become more competitive with 10 teams and that several franchises are still waiting for their first title.
“10 teams makes the competition even tougher. But I think we’ve been in the playoffs 2 or 3 times in the last 5 years, if I’m not mistaken. So that means we’ve only had our opportunities in the last one. I don’t know how to properly answer that. In a competition like this, you have to take one game at a time and go through the process.” pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of the match against the Delhi Capitals.
“We’ve got to keep trusting the process and playing good cricket. And we’ll get there. And how we’ve been successful is that we’ve been doing the same thing. So I don’t see why we should do anything different. But if we push ourselves to the limit every game and have the same approach on and off the field, we’re a better team, a better franchise. I think the results will take care of themselves rather than at the start of the season. We haven’t won it in 4 years, but some teams haven’t.” forever. But with all due respect, we thought we’d trust our progress and work on ourselves,” he added.
Mumbai underwent a management change ahead of the 2024 season with captain changing from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya. This move attracted attention and the season did not go as expected. However, heading into the 2026 edition, Mumbai have regrouped, with Hardik leading a side widely seen as one of the favourites.
The presence of Rohit, Hardik, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Tilak Varma gives Mumbai both experience and depth.
They also had a good start to the season. For the first time in 13 years, Mumbai Indians won their opening match, beating Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on 29 March. Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton scored half-centuries as Mumbai chased down a target of 221 with five balls to spare.
IPL 2026 | IPL Schedule | IPL Points Table | IPL Videos | Cricket News | Live Score
– The end
Issued by:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
03 Apr 2026 21:29 IST
